Arturia CMI V – Classic Sampling Workstation Virtual Instrument (VST/AU/AAX) Arturia

CMI V is a spot-on reincarnation of the first commercially available digital sampling system in music history, the sonic powerhouse behind numerous early MTV-era megahits. It even adds new creative features that weren’t possible back in the day.

Features:

• Software synthesizer playable through a MIDI keyboard
• 600 samples from the original CMI library
• 360 presets sounds made by Arturia sound designers
• Expanded number of track to 10 with a polyphony per track up to 32
• Perfect emulation of the analog filter response
• Faithful recreation of the sampling and additive synthesis capacities of the instrument
• Variable Bit Depth and Sample Rate
• Introduction of a new sound generation mode: Spectral synthesis
• Classic “page-R” inspired 32-step sequencer
• 24 sources of modulations per track to apply to all “CONTROL” parameters
• High-quality output effects
• VST, VST3, AU, AAX, and standalone operation

A Unique Musical Architecture
The first commercially available digital sampling system created the sound of countless MTV-era hits and evolved into a full music workstation.

ARTURIA turbocharged it with state-of-the-art features to make it a centerpiece of your productions. The CMI’s signature 8-bit grunge on hits by Depeche Mode, Herbie Hancock, Peter Gabriel, Duran Duran, and Kate Bush – not to mention countless film scores – transports you straight to the ’80s. CMI V transports your creativity anywhere you want to take it.

Hear What They Heard
Once musicians experienced the dynamic power of the CMI, they were hooked – if they could afford one. CMI V puts it all in the palm of your hand.

Prime Specimen
CMI V begins by meticulously modeling a full-spec CMI Series IIx, which enthusiasts and seasoned producers consider the one to want.

Modern Superpowers
Much more than nostalgia, CMI V provides everything you need – and then some – to explore the intersection of sampling and digital synthesis for modern production.

The Sound of Digital
More precise than analog. More synth-sounding than software sample libraries. CMI V strikes the perfect balance for EDM, hip-hop, neo-disco, and anything in between.

The Sound That Shook the World
As teenagers, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie loved electronic music. Their dream of making “the world’s greatest synthesizer” birthed an industry standard. Both notorious pioneers, Vogel and Ryrie had built computers as school projects and were fans of “Switched On Bach” by Wendy Carlos. They saw combining the computer and the synthesizer as the future, and no one could have predicted just how much they would nail it. The pair got going in earnest in 1975, naming their company Fairlight after a harbor ferry in their home town of Sydney, Australia.

Vogel and Ryrie soon met Tony Furse, who had prototyped a digital synth based on dual Motorola 6800 CPUs. This led to the CMI’s predecessor, the Qasar M8. When the two recorded piano from a radio broadcast, then played it back at different pitches, the result sounded more like a real piano than any electronic attempt thus far. The friends came up with the term “sampling” to describe the process.

Wonder from Down Under
Nothing screamed “the future” like the CMI’s computer terminal, light-pen interface, and master keyboard. CMI V faithfully reproduces its look and adds more real-time controls.

The CMI’s creators intended its user experience to be friendlier than that of knob-covered analog synths, which they found difficult to control. The result was an obelisk of technology that made you look like you knew what you were doing – and was so interactive and fun to use that you actually did!

01. Power of Ten
CMI V presets contain up to 10 different instrument slots, each of which can load a different sample or synthesized sound.

02. Onscreen Keys
The virtual keyboard doesn’t just look like the real thing, it’s velocity-sensitive. Click lower on the keys for increased velocities.

03. Assignable Controls
The CMI Series II had three sliders and two switches here. CMI V gives you six of each, all assignable in CMI V’s expanded interface mode.

04. Dedicated Controls
CMI V devotes a bank of eight sliders to the most-often-grabbed settings on the original: Filter, Sample Start, Vibrato, Effects Send, and Envelopes.

The Green Screen
When retro samples meet modern processing power, anything is possible. Not only did ARTURIA include all the sampling and sequencing options of the original CMI Series IIx, but they added deep sound editing, two new synthesis methods, and an array of essential FX. CMI V is everything the Fairlight was, and everything it could have been.

Sample Smorgasbord
Load any of the ten instrument slots with samples from the original factory disks – or build your own sounds in the Time and Spectral synths.

Synthesis
The Time Synth lets you draw your own envelopes for up to 32 harmonics, letting you finesse breathtaking additive timbres.

The Full Spectrum
Paint in broader strokes with the Spectral Synth, which gives you control over the entire harmonic series at once.

Precise Control
Each instrument slot features independent control over filtering, vibrato, envelope, and more, yielding huge soundscapes from one CMI V Preset.

Dual Personalities
Convert any sampled sound to a synthesized one, and vice versa, with one click.

Page R for the Ages
Ten instrument tracks, pattern chaining, and turn Fairlight’s graphical step sequencing into a modern creativity booster.

Mix Master
Full mixing with insert FX on every instrument lets you craft entire compositions inside a single instance of CMI V.

Presets
The first thing eager CMI owners did was push the instrument to its limits to coax as many different sounds out of it as possible. In CMI V the limits are almost non-existent, which delighted ARTURIA’s stable of expert sound designers. Their creations include all the CMI’s greatest hits as well as entirely new sonic territory.